Kommentar zu Kohelet 8:9

All this I have seen. What is mentioned above.

All this I have seen. What is mentioned above.

“All this I have seen and taken to my heart, for every action that is performed beneath the sun, when man had authority over man, it was to his detriment” (Ecclesiastes 8:9).
“All this I have seen…when man had authority over man, it was to his detriment” – there are times when it is to the detriment of the ruler, and there are times when it is to the detriment of the ruled. Rabbi Elazar said: You have one incur liability by means of another only if he is a person of the same stature, as it is stated: “When man had authority [over man].”³¹The ruler persecutes another person, and is subsequently punished for his misdeeds. God arranges it such that the person he persecutes was himself deserving of punishment.
Rabbi Yonatan said: Even a rod and even a strap incur liability by means of that person, as it is stated: “For the yoke of its burden…like the day of Midian” (Isaiah 9:3); like the day of judgment [din].³²Although these are inanimate objects, if they are used to make a person suffer they will eventually be destroyed (Etz Yosef). Rabbi Ḥama bar Guryon said: , even non-fruit trees, are destined to give an account and a reckoning. The Rabbis derive it from this [verse]: “For is the tree of a field a man?” (Deuteronomy 20:19) – just as a man is destined to give an account and a reckoning, so too, non-fruit trees are destined to give an account and a reckoning.³³Although the simple reading of the verse is that this phrase is a rhetorical question, it can also be translated as a statement: “For the tree of a field is a man.” Thus, the midrash views the verse as alluding to a similarity between a tree and a man.

And I applied my heart to [understand] all the work. And also to all mankind’s work I applied my mind, and I saw the time that a man ruled over another and overpowered him, and ultimately it turned to his own detriment.¹⁷Because, “God seeks the pursued,” see above 3:15. [E.g.,] Amoleik overpowered Yisroel, and ultimately [it states about Amoleik], “and his end will be that he will be lost forever.”¹⁸Bamidbar 24:20. And the same happened to Pharaoh, and the same with Nevuchadnetzar, and the same with Sancheiriv.